GENERAL  VIEW  OF  THE  CAMP  OF  THE  LICK  OP.SERVATORY-CROCKER  ECLIPSE  EXPEDITION. 


OQj 


PUBLICATIONS 

OF  THE 

Astronomical  Society  of  the  Pacific. 


Vol.  XVII.  San  Francisco,  California,  December  io,  1905.  No.  105, 


THE  LICK  OBSERVATORY-CROCKER  ECLIPSE 
EXPEDITION  TO  LABRADOR. 

By  Heber  D.  Curtis. 

In  accordance  with  the  plans  of  Director  Campbell  (cf. 
Lick  Observatory  Bulletin  No.  59)  to  utilize  three  stations  as 
widely  separated  as  possible  for  the  study  of  problems  of 
coronal  motion  and  of  possible  intramercurial  planets  at  the 
total  solar  eclipse  of  August  30,  1905,  it  was  decided  to  place 
one  of  the  three  eclipse  expeditions  sent  out  by  the  Lick  Observa- 
tory, University  of  California,  through  Mr.  Wm.  H.  Crocker’s 
generosity,  at  some  point  on  the  coast  of  Labrador.  The  actual 
difference  in  time  between  the  instants  of  totality  on  the  coast 
of  Labrador  and  at  the  Egyptian  station  was  about  two  and 
a half  hours,  and  the  value  of  large-scale  photographs  of  the 
corona  separated  by  this  interval  of  time  from  the  eastern 
stations  was  felt  to  more  than  counterbalance  the  risk  of  unfa- 
vorable weather  conditions  which  would  undoubtedly  be  quite 
large  in  such  a climate  as  that  of  Labrador. 

The  Labrador  party  consisted  of  the  writer  and  Dr.  Joel 
Stebbins,  formerly  Fellow  at  the  Lick  Observatory  and  now 
Assistant  Professor  of  Astronomy  at  the  University  of  Illinois. 
Mrs.  Curtis  and  Mrs.  Stebbins  accompanied  the  expedition^ 
which  sailed  from  New  York  for  St.  Johns,  Newfoundland, 
on  July  8th,  via  the  Red  Cross  Line  steamer  “Rosalind.”  The 
only  method  of  reaching  the  Labrador  is  by  the  little  mail 
steamer  “ Virginia  Lake,”  of  the  Reid-Newfoundland  Company, 
which  sails  every  two  weeks  or  so  from  St.  Johns.  It  was 
found  on  reaching  Halifax  that  the  somewhat  elastic  schedule 
of  this  steamer  had  been  changed  so  as  to  leave  St.  Johns  on 
the  13th  of  July,  instead  of  on  the  20th,  as  we  had  expected. 


154:00 


74 


Publications  of  the 


This  was  the  date  of  the  arrival  of  the  “Rosalind/’  so  that  it  was 
necessary  to  make  a very  hurried  transfer  of  freight  at  St. 
Johns  and  to  forego,  to  the  great  regret  of  the  party,  the 
pleasure  of  a visit  with  Sir  William  MacGregor,  Governor 
of  Newfoundland,  who  had  invited  the  four  members  of  the 
expedition  to  be  his  guests  at  Government  House  during  their 
stay  in  St.  Johns.  We  are  indebted  to  the  Newfoundland  Gov- 
ernment for  the  free  entry  of  all  our  goods  and  instruments, 
and  to  Governor  MacGregor  for  so  expediting  the  customs 
formalities  that  we  were  not  delayed  in  the  slightest  in  our 
transfer  to  the  Labrador  steamer.  To  Mr.  H.  A.  Morine, 
General  Passenger  Agent  of  the  Reid-Newfoundland  Company, 
we  are  greatly  indebted  for  his  consent  to  hold  the  “ Virginia 
Lake  ” for  the  transfer  of  our  freight.  Had  we  missed  this 
connection  at  St.  Johns,  we  should  not  have  reached  our  station 
till  August  5th  instead  of  on  July  18th.  The  trip  from  St. 
Johns  to  Cartwright,  Sandwich  Bay,  Labrador,  occupied  near- 
ly five  days,  and  was  full  of  novel  experiences,  though  quite 
cold  and  with  much  rain  and  fog.  Literally  hundreds  of  ice- 
bergs were  passed,  one  of  them,  an  enormous  mass,  toward 
which  we  were  steering  through  the  thick  fog  of  a dark  night, 
being  much  too  close  for  comfort.  Considerable  floating  pan- 
ice was  passed  as  well,  and  before  the  little  steamer  could 
reach  her  most  northern  ports  of  call,  at  the  Moravian  mission 
stations  of  Hopedale  and  Nain,  she  had  to  force  her  way 
through  five  miles  of  pack-ice.  This  was  the  first  trip  of 
the  season  in  which  she  had  been  able  to  reach  these  northern 
points  at  all.  Snow  still  lay  in  many  of  the  gullies  down  to 
the  water’s  edge,  for  the  Atlantic  Labrador  is  much  colder 
than  the  corresponding  latitudes  on  the  western  coast  of  the 
continent,  owing  to  the  cold  Arctic  current  which  brings  the 
bergs  and  pack-ice  down  from  the  north.  The  amount  of  ice 
brought  down  by  the  current  this  summer  was  declared  by 
those  of  long  experience  on  the  coast  to  be  unprecedented,  and 
must  be  taken  into  account  as  one  of  the  causes  of  the  unusual 
amount  of  bad  weather  which  the  summer  afforded. 

Every  effort  had  been  made  before  starting  to  select  thr 
best  location  as  regards  weather  conditions,  and  Cartwright , 
on  Sandwich  Bay,  had  been  tentatively  selected,  subject  to 
change,  should  evidence  favor  another  location.  Letters  from 


> • 


Astronomical  Society  of  the  Pacific.  175 

men  of  long  experience  on  the  coast  spoke  of  the  dangers  from 
fog,  and  agreed  that  the  harbor  of  Cartwright,  somewhat 
sheltered  and  removed  as  it  is  from  the  open  sea,  was  far  more 
apt  to  be  free  from  fog  than  more  eastern  and  exposed  spots. 
There  are  no  meteorological  data  for  this  bleak  coast  save 
the  rather  general  records  of  the  Hudson’s  Bay  Company. 
Navigators  of  experience  state  that  it  is  not  infrequently  clear 
in  Sandwich  Bay  when  thick  outside.  On  the  trip  to  the 
Labrador,  also,  no  opportunity  was  lost  to  interview  numbers 
of  old  fishermen  of  from  twenty  to  fifty  years’  experience  on 
the  coast,  and  their  evidence  was  all  to  the  same  end;  that 
the  eastern  and  more  exposed  spots  were  much  more  subject 
to  storm  and  fog  than  places  to  the  north  and  west,  particularly 
when  somewhat  removed  from  the  open  ocean.  Spotted  and 
Square  islands,  among  the  most  easterly  of  the  coast  points, 
are  stated  to  be  extremely  subject  to  fog.  The  interior,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  subject  to  very  rainy  and  stormy  weather 
in  summer.  The  Hudson’s  Bay  Company  post  at  Northwest 
River,  at  the  head  of  Hamilton  Inlet,  over  one  hundred  miles 
from  the  sea,  is  almost  centrally  located  on  the  path  of  the 
eclipse,  but  the  records  kept  there  show  that  the  last  week 
in  August  has  been  wet  and  stormy  every  year  for  the  past 
ten  years.  The  geography  used  in  the  Newfoundland  schools 
states  that  “Cartwright  is  noted  for  its  mild  and  pleasant 
climate  as  compared  with  the  surrounding  region.”  Accord- 
ingly no  evidence  was  found  to  change  the  tentative  selection 
of  Cartwright,  which  had  been  made  before  starting. 

Cartwright  is  pleasantly  located  on  a landlocked  arm  of 
Sandwich  Bay;  its  surroundings  are  not  devoid  of  natural 
beauty,  and  consist  of  low  mountains  covered  with  stunted 
pines,  a pleasant  change  from  the  uniformly  cheerless,  treeless, 
and  rocky  headlands  of  the  coast.  The  scenery  on  the  Labrador 
is  often  grand  and  impressive,  but  probably  as  bleak  and  deso- 
late as  that  of  any  coast  on  the  globe.  Cartwright  is  a post 
of  the  Hudson’s  Bay  Company,  and  consists  of  but  a few 
houses  and  huts,  aside  from  the  storehouses  and  other  buildings 
of  the  company.  It  has  a permanent  population  of  about 
sixteen,  a number  which  is  swelled  to  fifty  or  sixty  in  summer, 
when  the  “ liveyeres  ” come  down  from  their  winter  quar- 
ters at  the  head  of  the  bay  to  engage  in  salmon-fishing. 


176 


Publications  of  the 


We  were  fortunate  enough  to  have  had  as  fellow  travelers 
on  the  “ Virginia  Lake  ” two  men  high  in  influence  in  the 
affairs  of  the  Hudson’s  Bay  Company,  Dr.  A.  Milne,  Assist- 
ant Commissioner,  of  Winnipeg,  and  Mr.  Peter  MacKenzie, 
with  a record  of  fifty  years’  service  in  “ the  silent  places,” 
and  now  Chief  Factor  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Labrador  Dis- 
tricts. These  gentlemen  placed  at  our  disposal  the  Company’s 
resources  at  Cartwright,  and  their  general  orders  were  most 
ably  and  willingly  seconded  by  Mr.  W.  E.  Swaffielp,  the 
Hudson’s  Bay  Company  Agent  at  this  post. 

The  winter  quarters  of  the  company’s  servants  were  offered 
us  by  Mr.  Swaffield.  All  tents,  camp  supplies,  and  pro- 
visions had  been  brought  from  New  York.  This  little  old 
house  was  a veritable  treasure-trove,  however,  furnishing  us 
with  a kitchen,  a combined  pantry  and  dark-room,  and  a gen- 
eral storeroom.  The  great  box  stove  formed  the  nucleus  of 
our  camp  life  during  the  cold,  subarctic  summer,  though  the 
heavily  raftered  ceiling  was  built  so  low,  to  economize  heat 
against  the  winter  temperatures  of  6o°  or  70°  below  zero, 
that  the  tallest  member  of  the  expedition  had  innumerable 
causes  of  temporary  regret  at  his  inches.  The  site  for  the 
camp  was  chosen  directly  behind  and  to  the  west  of  this  house. 

Considerable  difficulty  was  experienced  at  the  start  in  pro- 
curing labor.  The  expedition  reached  Cartwright  at  the  mid- 
dle of  the  salmon  run.  This  is  the  main  means  of  support  for 
these  fishermen,  and  most  of  them  earn  enough  in  the  two  or 
three  weeks  of  the  run  to  support  them  for  the  balance  of 
the  year,  one  hundred  and  twenty  or  one  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  being  quite  fair  annual  wages,  on  the  Labrador 
standard.  It  would  have  been  impossible  for  the  first  week  or 
two  to  have  hired  men  for  twenty-five  dollars  per  day,  as  not 
infrequently  more  than  this  might  be  made  on  a favorable 
day  of  the  run.  Considerable  of  the  work  of  establishing  the 
camp  and  clearing  off  some  of  the  timber  was  therefore  done 
by  the  members  of  the  expedition.  Later  two  fishermen  gave 
up  their  cod-fishing  to  work  for  the  expedition,  and  a third 
was  employed  at  intervals. 

A difficulty  of  quite  another  sort  was  found  in  the  justly 
famous  Labrador  flies  and  mosquitoes.  We  had  read  much 
in  advance  about  these  pests,  and  the  reception  they  gave  us 


Astronomical  Society  of  the  Pacific.  177 

was  fully  as  vigorous  as  we  had  anticipated.  The  little  black 
flies  delight  to  crawl  up  the  sleeves  or  under  the  clothing  and 
bite  out  a small  chunk.  The  “stout,”  or  “bull-dog,”  is  the 
size  of  a large  horse-fly,  and  stops  at  nothing  when  hungry. 
The  mosquitoes  are  most  voracious  and  in  numbers  uncount- 
able. We  spent  some  time  in  experimenting  with  various  fly 
ointments,  most  disagreeable  to  use  and  at  best  but  temporary 
in  the  relief  afforded,  and  finally  managed  to  work  in  comfort 
out  of  doors  only  by  the  use  of  leather  gloves,  wristlets,  and 
rather  elaborate  head-nets  of  fine  mesh,  fastened  to  wide  straw 
hats  and  tied  tightly  about  the  neck  or  shoulders.  With  these 
precautions  we  found  it  possible  to  work  in  comparative  corii- 
tort  in  the  midst  of  these  buzzing  swarms  of  insect  pests. 
Work  in  the  open  was  otherwise  impossible.  It  was  with 
considerable  elation  that  we  proved  the  possibility  of  taking 
sextant  observations  through  the  head-net. 

The  work  of  installing  the  instruments  was  accomplished, 
with  time  to  spare,  in  spite  of  the  very  heavy  run  of  bad 
weather.  The  larger  buildings  of  the  Hudson’s  Bay  Company 
are  arranged  to  catch  the  rain-water  from  the  roofs,  and  so 
wet  was  the  summer  that  Mr.  Swaffield  states  that  this  was 
the  first  time  in  eight  years  that  he  had  not  had  to  import 
w'ater  from  a creek  some  distance  from  the  post  across  the 
bay.  All  the  water  used  at  the  camp  after  the  first  two  weeks 
had  to  be  imported  in  this  fashion,  by  boat.  It  was  early 
realized  that  the  chances  of  a successful  eclipse  were  very 
much  poorer  than  had  been  anticipated,  due  to  the  unusual 
amount  of  bad  weather,  caused  doubtless  by  the  great  quantity 
of  ice  coming  down  from  the  north.  It  had  been  hoped  that 
the  chances  of  success  would  be  at  least  one  in  two,  but  the 
meteorological  records  which  we  kept  show  that  the  number 
of  good  eclipse  days  was  in  much  smaller  proportion.  The 
following  data  give  a brief  summary  of  the  weather  conditions 


experienced. 

Number  of  days  on  which  observations  were 

taken,  July  i8th-September  6th 50 

Number  of  days  clear  or  nearly  so  at  8:06 

a.  m 13 

Number  of  days  on  which  a few  results  might 
have  been  secured  7 


178  Publications  of  the 

Proportion  of  “good”  eclipse  days,  about  one  in 
four. 

Maximum  recorded  temperature,  73  °. 

Minimum  recorded  temperature,  340. 

(A  little  ice  and  much  frost  on  several  nights 
in  August.) 

Governor  MacGregor  had  planned  a scientific  expedition 
along  the  Labrador  coast  with  the  intention  of  making  accurate 
determinations  of  the  latitude  and  longitude  of  a number  of 
reference-points  in  this  poorly  surveyed  region.  A battery  of 
chronometers  and  a number  of  theodolites,  chronographs,  and 
other  instruments  were  provided  for  this  purpose,  for  which 
Governor  MacGregor  is  particularly  well  fitted  through  the 
work  he  had  already  done  in  this  line  while  in  charge  of  the 
colonies  of  British  New  Guinea  and  of  Lagos  in  the  British 
West  Africa  Protectorate.  The  Governor  and  his  assistants 
reached  Cartwright  on  August  8th  in  the  government  yacht 
“ Fiona,”  piloted  by  Dr.  Grenfell,  with  the  British  cruiser 
“ Scylla,”  under  Commodore  Sir  Alfred  Paget,  as  convoy. 
Governor  MacGregor  was  favored  with  a clear  night,  and 
secured  a complete  and  extended  set  of  observations  for  lati- 
tude and  longitude.  The  reductions  of  the  latter  coordinate 
have  not  yet  reached  the  writer;  that  for  the  latitude  is  given 
below.  We  were  glad  also  to  have  as  visitors  to  the  camp 
Secretary  of  State  Elihu  Root  and  party.  It  may  not  be  gen- 
erally known  that  Mr.  Root,  as  a young  man,  was  member  of 
an  eclipse  expedition  in  charge  of  the  late  Professor  Peters, 
Director  of  the  observatory  at  Hamilton  College,  of  which 
institution  Mr.  Root  is  an  alumnus. 

The  coordinates  of  Cartwright,  and  the  computed  data  for 
the  eclipse,  are  as  follows: — 

Longitude,  3h  47m  59s  W.  (Admiralty  chart). 

Latitude  53 0 42'  31"  N.  (Sir  Wm.  MacGregor). 

First  contact,  7h  3m  12s1  a.  m.,  local  mean  time. 

Second  “ 8 5 37 

Third  “887 
Last  “ 9 15  6 

Sun’s  apparent  altitude  at  mid-eclipse,  25 0 44'  35". 

Duration  of  totality,  2m  30s. 


Astronomical  Society  of  the  Pacific. 


1 79 


With  the  four  intramercurial  cameras  it  was  planned  to 
take  two  plates  with  each  camera,  having  an  exposure  time 
of  about  65s  apiece,  allowing  twenty  seconds  for  the  change 
of  plates  at  the  middle  of  totality  and  the  cessation  of  vibra- 
tion in  the  instrument  caused  thereby.  This  margin  was  more 
than  enough,  as  the  change  was  not  infrequently  made  in 
the  preliminary  drills  in  ten  seconds.  For  three  of  the  cameras 
the  plates  used  were  sixteen  by  twenty  inches ; and  for  the 
fourth,  which  pointed  to  the  region  of  the  sky  nearest  the 
horizon,  the  plates  were  fourteen  by  seventeen  inches.  The 
driving-clock  was  rated  to  solar  time.  The  lenses  were  three 
inches  in  diameter,  by  eleven  feet  three  inches  focal  length. 

The  exposures  for  the  large-scale  photographs  of  the  corona 
to  be  taken  with  the  41-foot  lens  were  arranged  as  follows : — 
^4  second  14  x 17 

I “ 14x17  “Standardized”  at  Mt.  Hamilton. 


14  x 17 

14  x 17  “ Standardized  ” at  Mt.  Hamilton. 
l8  X 22 

l8x22  “Standardized”  at  Mt.  Hamilton. 


4 

8 

64 

16 


8 “ 14x17 
2 “ 14x17 

The  Sunday  and  Monday  preceding  the  eclipse  were  the 
best  days  we  had  seen  on  the  Labrador;  the  seeing  was  par- 
ticularly good.  Tuesday,  the  29th,  however,  opened  with  the 
worst  gale  of  the  season ; the  wind  was  so  high  that  anxiety 
was  felt  for  the  safety  of  the  tower  of  the  41 -foot  camera.  The 
“ Scylla  ” had  returned  to  Cartwright  on  the  28th,  and  it  was 
feared  that  the  “ Fiona  ” and  Dr.  Grenfell  in  his  “ Strath - 
cona  ” might  not  be  able  to  reach  the  harbor,  but  they  did. 
Rain  fell  nearly  all  the  night  of  the  29th,  but  there  was  a 
lull  in  the  storm  on  the  morning  of  the  30th,  the  wind  shifting 
from  north  to  west,  and  affording  a fleeting  view  of  the 
crescent  Sun  about  half  an  hour  before  totality.  But  at  the 
time  of  the  total  eclipse  the  densest  of  clouds  covered  the 
Sun,  so  that  not  a vestige  of  the  eclipse  could  be  seen.  The 
storm  sprang  up  again  in  the  afternoon  and  lasted  for  five 
days  after  the  eclipse.  Data  from  all  possible  sources  indicate 
that  this  gale  was  of  great  extent,  and  that  stormy  conditions 
were  the  rule  all  over  the  coast  and  far  inland  from  the  29th 


i8o 


Publications  of  the 


of  August  to  the  5th  of  September.  The  slight  break  in  this 
gale,  however,  which  came  on  the  morning  of  the  30th,  was 
sufficient  to  afford  a view  of  the  eclipse  at  several  Labrador 
points.  Fishermen  saw  it  through  a rift  in  the  clouds  at 
Paradise,  twenty  miles  southwest.  It  was  clear,  at  the  time 
of  totality,  at  Indian  Tickle,  on  the  coast  some  twenty-five 
miles  east  of  Cartwright.  At  Northwest  River,  one  hundred 
miles  inland,  where  the  English  and  Canadian  parties  were 
located,  it  was  raining  at  the  time  of  the  eclipse.  So,  aside 
from  the  magnetic  results  secured  at  the  stations  established 
by  the  Carnegie  Institution,  the  scientific  results  from  Labra- 
dor were  nil. 

The  personnel  of  the  camp  at  the  time  of  the  eclipse  was 
as  follows : — 

Forty-one  foot  camera — Dr.  Joel  Stebbins,  Assistant 
Professor  of  Astronomy,  University  of  Illinois ; Mr.  W. 
Taylor  Reed,  formerly  Assistant  Professor  of  Astronomy  at 
Princeton  University. 

Intramercurial  cameras — Mr.  E.  F.  Harvey,  of  St.  Johns, 
at  the  exposing  screen;  Camera  No.  9,  Sir  Alfred  Paget, 
R.  N.,  K.  C.  B.  etc.,  Commodor9  H.  M.  S.  “ Scylla  ” ; Camera 
No.  10,  Professor  E.  R.  Marle,  B.  Sc.  (Lond.),  F.'C.  S.,  Sci- 
ence Master,  Methodist  College,  St.  Johns;  Camera  No.  11, 
Dr.  W.  T.  Grenfell,  Labrador  Deep  Sea  Mission ; Camera 
No.  12,  Mr.  W.  E.  Swaffield,  Hudson’s  Bay  Company  Agent 
at  Cartwright. 

Time-counter  — Sub-Lieutenant  Viney,  R.  N.,  H.  M.  S. 
“ Scylla.” 

Times  of  contact  and  visual  observations — Sir  William 
MacGregor,  M.  D.,  C.  B.,  K.  C.  M.  G.,  etc.,  Governor  of  New- 
foundland; Mr.  A.  C.  Cleminson;  Captain  G.  H.  Elgee, 
F.  R.  G.  S. ; Mr.  Henry  Reeve,  C.  M.  G. ; Lieutenant  Reinold, 
R.  N.,  H.  M.  S.  “ Scylla.” 

Shadozv-bands — Mr.  A.  R.  House. 

To  all  the  above  our  heartiest  thanks  are  due,  and  par- 
ticularly to  Dr.  Joel  Stebbins,  whose  skilled  assistance  and 
fertility  of  resource  were  of  great  value  to  the  expedition. 
This  opportunity  is  taken  to  express  our  thanks  also  to  Captain 
Parsons  and  officers  of  the  “ Virginia  Lake,”  to  the  Hud- 
son’s Bay  Company  and  Mr.  Swaffield,  its  Agent  at  Cart- 


THE  FORTY-ONE-FOOT  TELESCOPE  AND  THE  INTRAMERCURIAL  CAMERA,  AT  CARTWRIGHT,  LABRADOR. 


» 


Astronomical  Society  of  the  Pacific . 1 8 1 

wright,  and  to  the  officials  of  the  Red  Cross  Line  and  Reid- 
Newfoundland  Companies.  The  four  intramercurial  lenses 
were  loaned  to  the  Lick  Observatory  by  the  Harvard  College 
Observatory,  and  the  five-inch  lens  of  forty-one  feet  focal 
length  by  the  Princeton  Observatory. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Governor  MacGregor  and  Com- 
modore Paget,  all  the  assistants  were  enabled  to  leave  for 
St.  Johns  immediately  after  the  eclipse  on  either  the  “ Scylla  ” 
or  the  “ Fiona,”  so  that  by  n o’clock  of  the  eclipse  "morning 
Mrs.  Curtis  and  the  writer  were  the  only  outsiders  left  in 
Cartwright.  The  “ Virginia  Lake  ” was  so  delayed  by  fog 
and  stormy  weather  that  it  was  sixteen  days  after  the  eclipse, 
on  September  15th,  before  we  finally  left  Cartwright.  The 
first  snow  of  the  winter  was  then  lying  on  its  hills. 

The  limits  of  a scientific  article  forbid  more  than  a mention 
of  the  novel  and  interesting  features  of  life  on  the  Labrador, 
the  packs  of  wolfish  Eskimo  dogs,  the  simple  “ liveyeres  ” 
with  their  soft  and  pleasant  speech  in  the  quaint  dialect  of 
Devon,  the  sturdy  fishermen  from  Newfoundland,  and  the 
great  work  which  Dr.  Grenfell  is  doing  for  his  chosen  people 
on  this  cruel  coast.  Of  all  these  and  of  the  workings  of  the 
great  two-hundred-year-old  Company,  whose  history  is  that 
of  the  whole  Northland,  we  saw  and  learned  much,  and  closed 
our  two  months’  sojourn  with  nothing  but  regret  at  leaving 
the  pleasant  associations  formed  while  on  the  Labrador. 


